Virginia

Folded over, folded in on your self
You reach out, with curled up tips
your tributaries; branches & firm centre line
settled deep from tip to toe

You take me to the harbour rails
let me step upon the boardwalk
All my summer was in the waiting

Only when the seasons change
do you turn into your full colour
Only when the seasons change
are you undone by my wild winds

You are ripped from the red white stalks
torn, you let me pull you into the breeze
You float, without waiting, to my floor

Dry sun,  takes away our moisture
dry clear days take away our breath
until the day of gathering when we stroke
and caress; a private life in the public view






a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here

Handwriting

Notes I made
forbade the thoughts
of sloping margins

Suggestions, of my own
that I struggled to cope
without I barge in






a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here

Fallen Leaf

I am a bully
I know bullies too
I am a bully
There are bullies at the zoo

The zoo that is the office
The zoo that is the mall
The zoo that is the schoolyard
Where angels seldom call

I do it for protection
I do it for a laugh
I do it without warning
There is badness on my path

Protection from the suffering
Being the brunt of all the jokes
Calling without muttering
Tied up, helpless left to choke

I am a bully
A bully through and through
You only can be a bully
When you have been bullied too

You too there in the office
You too there in the mall
You too there in the school yard
Where the bullies true do call


a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here

Deceive

I see you in your cell
dry stale bread
lukewarm tepid water

I take you to another hell
with talk of geese
in V formation

Flying free over Rutland Water
swell you say
it’s good of you to remind me

You talk of deer
of mountains, of polar icecaps
of memories, that you may live to slaughter

With no desire to dwell I shuffle
Some half hearted explanation
it could have been me was the gist of it

Nevertheless I turned away
I smiled a wry and wicked smile
for I was rather glad that they had caught her








a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here

Sounds Cape

Sibelius
Are you with me
does the word take you anywhere at all

Shadows made of life
silhouettes in a white or a greyer snow
are you with me
does the brightness take you anywhere at all

Minimalist backdrops
to the foreground of all our dreams
Only the silence pulls apart the tension
Are you with me
does the theatrical take you anywhere at all

Blood drops on the canvas
the initiation, with a knife of gold
Stalactites, mites in close formation
Are you with me
or does the rite of passage leave you cold







a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here